Assessment at Holwell Primary School

Assessment at Holwell

Assessment at Holwell follows the principle that assessment information will only be accurate and valuable if it is the result of rich and immersive learning opportunities. If children are bored and disengaged, they will not demonstrate what they know, understand and can do in their work. Assessment should not seek to label children’s achievements but instead to remove the ceiling on attainment and support children in making the next steps in their learning. 

Reporting

Through each academic year, the children are immersed within a progressive curriculum where they are taught a range of skills and knowledge from the National Curriculum. The children’s understanding and attainment of what they have been taught is assessed against the National Curriculum end of year expectation statements for each year group. At each assessment point, the children will be banded at WTS, EXS or GDS.  

Working Towards the National Curriculum Expectations of their Year Group (WTS): Your child is accessing the relevant curriculum but is not yet fully secure.It is important to remember that your child will not have been taught the whole curriculum for their current year group at this assessment point e.g. Autumn Report and therefore will be assessed at working towards achieving the expected standard but they may be secure in the curriculum for their year group by the end of the year.

Working at the Expected Standard of their Year Group (EXS):Your child is secure and working independently across all the year group curriculum expectations.

Working at Greater Depth within the expectations of their year group (GDS): Your child has shown a secure knowledge of the expectations across all their curriculum and is tackling challenging tasks and developing a mastery level understanding

Assessment in Early Years

Assessment in the EYFS at Holwell consists of two broad types of assessments in EYFS. On-going assessment which is what the team at Holwell do on a daily basis to make decisions about what your child has learned or can do already so as to help the child move on in their learning – this is sometimes called ‘formative’ assessment because it informs the next steps that are planned with the child and the parent. Another type of assessment known as ‘summative’ assessment takes place three times through the year. 

Assessment in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2

Forms of Assessment

There are three broad, overarching forms of assessment, each with its own purposes:

Day-to-day in-school formative assessment, for example:

• Question and answer during class
• Marking of pupils’ work
• Observational assessment
• Regular, short, tests or assessment tasks
• Feedback and marking of pupil’s work

 In-school summative assessment, for example:

• Reviews for pupils with SEND
• Termly Assessments (NFER Assessments) at three ‘Check points’
• Half Termly Curriculum Assessments for foundation subjects (In house tracking system)
• Short weekly tests in spellings and timetables.

Nationally standardised summative assessment, for example:

• Reception baseline and EYFS Profile: Best practice decrees that children should be assessed at the beginning of both Nursery and Reception classes through a Baseline assessment. This is presently non statutory. During the year they are continually assessed using the Early Years Outcomes. At the end of Reception they have a statutory assessment using the Foundation Stage Profile. This creates a baseline for entry into Key Stage 1.
• Year 1 phonics screen & Year 2 phonics rescreen
• National Curriculum tests at the end of Key Stage 2: At the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6) the children have a final statutory assessment, which is a set of standard assessment tasks (SATS).The areas assessed are reading, grammar/punctuation/spelling and mathematics. These assessments are externally marked and bench marked. Writing, speaking and listening and science are teacher assessed. All statutory assessments are published by the DfE as part of a report known as ASP (Analyse School Performance) and by Ofsted as part of their IDSR (Inspection Data Summary Report). All assessments are shared with parents termly – as part of Parent Consultations or within the Annual Pupil Report.

Assessment Cycle

All assessments are scheduled through the year to ensure that they are used to inform teachers planning and to ensure that misconceptions and gaps in learning are addressed.  

Standardised Tests

At each Check point, the children will be assessed against t the key skills, knowledge and understanding appropriate for their age as set out in the Primary Curriculum. Judgements will be made by using teacher assessment and standardised test results. 

Pupils in Year 2 and 6

Pupils in years 2 and 6 are assessed using a set of criteria called TAFs (teacher assessment frameworks) alongside Statutory National Assessments (SATS). 

Pupil progress meetings

Pupil progress meetings between class teachers and members of the Senior Leadership Team happen once each term. 

These meetings are to establish how the children are performing in relation to their age related expectations and to find ways to ensure that all children are supported in their learning in a manner that reflects their individual needs. Children that may be in danger of falling behind are also identified; the SLT are then able to discuss how these children might be supported with the teachers to ensure that actions are taken to accelerate the children’s learning. Likewise, children that are exceeding age related expectations are discussed and extension work put in place as appropriate. Teachers complete a review sheet using Herts data prior to this meeting 

Communicating with Parents about Learning and Assessment

Parents are kept up to date with their children’s progress during review meetings which are held three times through the year (Autumn, Spring and Summer) During these meetings, teachers will discuss children’s work, achievements and next steps . Children are invited to attend these meetings.

At each parent meeting, parents are provided with a written report . In each written report, children’s learning is described according to how securely they have learned the curriculum for their age so far that year. There is also a target given for Reading, Writing and Maths. In the summer term, more information is given which details the children’s achievements in all curriculum areas.

Parents are also kept up to date with their children’s progress through half termly academic reports.